GZOWSKI, gzh5vIsk1, Sir CASIMIR STASIS LAIJS ( 1813-98). A Polish-Canadian engineer, born in Saint Petersburg. He graduated at the military engineering college in Kremenetz, Vol hynia, and had a commission in the regular army that he relinquished to join the patriots of Poland in their insurrection, for which he was imprisoned in Austria and banished, going to the United States in 1833. Having no knowledge of English, he could not follow his own profession there, so he taught French, German, drawing, and fencing; studied law in Pittsfield, Mass., and practiced it in Pennsylvania. In 1841 he re paired to Toronto. where be speedily found engi neering occupation in connection with the pro posed enlargement of the Welland Canal, and he received an appointment in the Public Works De partment. He had charge of the harbor works at Montreal (1850-53), was chief engineer of the Saint Lawrence and Atlantic Railway Company, and in 1857-69 senior partner of a railroad-build ing firm which ownedrolling-mills in Toronto.
In 1871 he was engineer of the International Bridge across the Niagara River. He was knighted in 1891.
1 The eighth letter and sixth conso nant in the English alphabet. Its form is derived, through the inter mediate Latin H, from the Chal cidian Greek H, and the Phcenician Ei. As this character was used in Greece for both an aspirate and a vowel sound, some differentiation of form was found to be necessary and accordingly was used for h, and H for e. The form passed through the stage L to the symbol ', for the rough breath ing. In like manner, ' came to stand for the smooth breathing. The Latin H and the Greek (H) are identical in both form and alpha betic position, but they have not the same value. They have taken the position of cheth, the eighth letter in the Phoenician alphabet. The name cheth was probably merely a letter-name and not a word in the Semitic languages.